Daily Thunder.com Heat vs. Thunder: Pregame Primer

vs.

Miami Heat (20-18) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (21-18, 11-9 home)

TV: FS Oklahoma (Cox 37, HD 722, Tulsa Cox 27, DirectTV 679, UVerse 753)
Stream: Click Here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 7:00 CST

View from the enemy: Hot Hot Hoops

Home games get more and more valuable as we go. The Heat are a good team. But these are the home wins the Thunder need to start putting away. If you can beat them on the road, you should be able to beat them at home, right? No, don’t bring up the Spurs game.

Miami coming in: This is the second of a back-to-back for the Heat who just played in Houston last night. So we’ll have a game with two teams running on heavy legs. Miami is 4-6 in their last 10 games.

THE MATCHUPS
Up and down, it’s favorable for OKC. Yes, that includes Dwyane Wade who Thabo absolutely tortured in the last meeting. Wade is going to score and will get to the line a ton, but as long as he doesn’t score efficiently, it’ll be in favor of the Thunder.

Quentin Richardson can’t defend Kevin Durant. Dorell Wright is the best option because of his length, but still, KD should have his way. Michael Beasley is playing well, but he’s the type of guy Jeff Green matches up well against. Jermaine O’Neal has been better and he’ll affect the game inside, but OKC’s corral of big men should be able to balance.

The main thing that scares me is Daquan Cook shooting from outside. The Thunder have a tendency to collapse on penetration, so Cook will get some looks. He nearly shot the Heat back into the game last time so he’ll be a player to watch.

Mario Chalmers is a nice defender, but now that Rafer Alston is starting and getting most the minutes, I like Russell Westbrook’s matchup. He should be able to get in the lane at will.

The Thunder need this one. The teams around them are winning and if you give away home games, you’re going to regret it. This team has played a lot of good teams at home and taken care of business against the mediocre to bad ones. The Heat are pretty good so it won’t be easy. But they aren’t a great road team.

Tip at 7:00. Go Protect This House.

63 comments

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ThunderMan

A Guy Named Octavius Byrd Has Won Reading The Most Books

cwilson

Man this team just keeps growing. I know the last 2 games were tough losses but give me a break, 2 top tier Western Conference teams and we lose by 1 to each of them, oh yeah and one was on the road.

Then we come back on a traveling back to back and DESTROY this Heat team. Man the future is bright gentlemen!!!

Thundercat

@555
Shows how far this team has come from last year, with so much basketball
left to play.

Mully Mulls

andrew :Durant is up to 29.1 points per game now

And he said at the beginning of the year that 30 is a lotta points... ;)

@andrew
How can you average that many points, and not have a spot at the allstar
game.

andrew

Durant is up to 29.1 points per game now :)

Sammy

Wish we could play the Heat every game.

555

Thundercat :Yes..the thunder never allowed the heat to come back.

No, and now it really show that this Thunder is not the Thunder last year... The bench is better and they can finish game, or at least won't blow the big lead...
Good game...

Yes..the thunder never allowed the heat to come back.

justin

We were fifth in defense rating coming into this one, we'll probably be fourth now.. amazing.

grant phillips

did anyone see krstic come in at the end of the fight and try and push JO??? stickin up for KD

Osano-Whoa

Beautiful teardrop by Maynor.

Durant's gotta stop taking those shots he's gonna miss. Doesn't he realize I have friends to brag to?

Can Jeff Green stop anyone? :)

Nice win.. we shot amazing from the field, hitting our three pointers and everything. The turnovers and offensive rebounds will kill us when we're not shooting the lights out, but I guess it's pointless to complain when you're up 20.

Ibaka really doing a great job checking Beastly too... JG was playing ok but he couldn't stop Beastly at all in the first high...

Oh, I think JO picked the wrong guy to do that with the Thunder too...

I Love it when KD gets pissed! He should pretend he's playin against JO every game!

justin :Russ has 7 TO’s according to ESPN, I have him down for 6 TO’s, three of which were dropped passes that should have been caught.
I have Kevin Durant down for four turnovers..
At any rate, they can’t turn the ball over this much and give up this many offensive rebounds.. regardless of whose scoring is correct.

Yeah, but I saw that 2 of the first TO of KD's were actually his teammates cost him... And Wow... KD was angry... Ha, ha... Got in a verbal fight with JO... Ha, ha... Why JO always like to pick a fight with the Thunder!? Ha, ha...

Wow, Durant got a technical.

Nice awareness by Maynor there to get the finish on the fast break.

Osano-Whoa :Collison is so awesome.

Yeah, but we can't like him because he doesn't like the weather here...

To think that I used to despise him at KU... If we resign him I'm def getting a Jersey...

How awsome would it be for Kd to have a Mj type of game...I hope we see
that soon.

Wow, I know he's been good tonight, but that was an embarrassing miss on the by Harden.

Just as I was saying James Harden was playing well.. he's looked horrible on his last few shots.

He really needs a mid range game.. he puts his head down to the rim still way too much. He should pull up mid range and shoot. He just stuffed himself on his last shot attempt.

Collison is so awesome.

James Harden with two bad shots.. and LOL @ Collison.. Oh man.

Sparklespice

I am watching it on Nbatv. I can't believe it but the announcer impersonated Dexter from Dexter's laboratory

We. Are. Good.

Kevin Durant's been super human but this is one of the best overall games I've seen James Harden play..

Wow, howabout that rebound and score from Durant?

i see that ibaka got an assist today... congrats on the 3rd assist of the year big guy

Harden's playing very well.. nice pass to Russ but he could't finish.

westbrook FEED KD!!!!!!!!!!!!

James Harden was pretty good as well when he was in.

Yeah KD is unreal.

Russ has 7 TO's according to ESPN, I have him down for 6 TO's, three of which were dropped passes that should have been caught.

I have Kevin Durant down for four turnovers..

At any rate, they can't turn the ball over this much and give up this many offensive rebounds.. regardless of whose scoring is correct.

Alexfromgermany

KD 12/13, including 3/3 3pts...wow

The Thunder score keeper is trying to keep Kevin Durant's line pretty :)

As well he should, he's been amazing shooting the ball tonight..

Tapdog72

@justin
ESPN showed 7 each. Of course, it showed Miami getting 17 pts of our turns and us only getting 9 off theirs, so it's still advantage Miami.

my bad then, sorry guys. Mine still shows 8 to 9 TOs (ESPN - http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=300116025) although the points off are a significant difference

OTOH Kevin Durant's been unholy this game.. and we're still shooting 60% from the field. Hard to lose when you're shooting 60%! Plus the defense has been great, especially on Jermaine O'neal.

ESPN's box score shows 11 (I have two more turnovers for KD that I guess the OKC scorer's didn't feel like giving him :)). Heat have 18 points off those turnovers, 20 according to my count.. I'd say that's significant.

According to my box score anyway.

@Alexfromgermany

OKC has 12 turnovers dude..

these gameday comments are getting unreadable guys. Both teams have 7 turnovers and you're complaining about how we give them so many chances...ridiculous

stephen

grizzlies lead spurs 52:42 at half
hornet beat pacers 101:96
these 2 teams are very dangerous

Outshooting Miami by 10% and we're only winning by 10.

We forced some turnovers at the end there but are still losing the turnover and offensive boards.

We still might lose this game, though, if we continue to turn it over so much and let them second chance points. You can't turn the ball over 10+ times in a half and expect to win games. We've got a lead because we're shooting an absurd percentage from the field which can't possibly last into the second half. Miami can just hang around.. when we start shooting our normal %'s they'll get right back into it.

Miami has five more FGA and five more FTA than us already. That's a huge difference for a half of basketball.

Our bench is one of the best because our starting rotation stinks.

Who would've thought at the beginning of the season that we'd be saying that our bench is not only a strength, but one of the best in basketball?!

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January 18, 2010 at 9:06 am

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Heat vs. Thunder: Pregame Primer

Miami Heat (20-18) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (21-18, 11-9 home)

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